Rhubarb Loaf Cake

This rhubarb loaf cake makes rhubarb the star of the show. You’ll use three whole stalks (medium-sized) of rhubarb in this cake, making each slice full of sticky rhubarb goodness.

If you are lucky enough to have rhubarb growing in your garden then no doubt you are often faced with a glut of rhubarb.

Rhubarb crumble and rhubarb jam are some very tasty ways to use your rhubarb but if you want something different for a change then this rhubarb loaf cake is a great option to try.

Loaf cakes are a very simple cake to make for everyday, this one doesn’t need any decoration, the pieces of rhubarb pressed into the top of the cake mixture before baking are all that is needed.

If you have a large loaf tin that you use to make bread in, the two pound (900 g) size, then you are sorted.

Whether you want to serve it cold with a cup of tea, or warm with custard, cream or ice cream as if it was a rhubarb crumble in cake form, you’ll love this cake since the main flavour in it is delicious rhubarb. I love rhubarb and I like to use it in lots of different bakes.

Jump to:

• Roasted rhubarb
• Technique
• Ingredients
• Step by step
• Recipe variations
• If you like this
• Recipe

Roasted rhubarb

To make this cake you will first briefly roast the rhubarb with a little brown sugar in a dish in the oven, then leave it to cool.

This softens the rhubarb without it completely going soft and soggy and disintegrating as it does when you make stewed rhubarb or cook it in crumble.

The soft pieces of rhubarb still retain their shape inside the cake. I like to precook rhubarb in this way to include in cakes as it makes it sweeter and softer as well as letting you make your rhubarb pieces bigger!

Technique

This loaf cake uses the rubbing in method. This is the method you will probably be familiar with for making scones, crumble toppings and pastry.

In cakes this method is not often seen but it is sometimes used for tea loaf or fruit cakes, as it produces a moist cake with a soft sometimes crumbly texture.

This means you don’t need to use a mixer to make the cake, so preparing the cake mixture is really quick as it is all done by hand.

You simply rub the cold butter into the flour and sugar by hand until it has the texture of fine breadcrumbs, then add the eggs, flavourings and fruit. So simple!

Ingredients

Here is a list of the ingredients you will need for this recipe – use this as a list for shopping or for gathering together the ingredients in your kitchen. Check the recipe card at the end of the post for the quantities.

• self-raising flour
• light brown sugar
• unsalted butter – straight from the fridge
• rhubarb
• medium free-range eggs
• vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract – enhances the sweetness of the rhubarb
• ground ginger – a touch of ginger complements the rhubarb flavour nicely.

Step by step

1. Wash the rhubarb and slice it into pieces 1-2 cm long.
2. Put the rhubarb in a baking pan with 1.5 tablespoons of light brown sugar.

3. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for approx. 20 minutes, until slightly soft. Allow to cool for ten minutes or so, then prepare the cake mixture.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C to bake the cake.
5. Weigh out the self-raising flour, butter, and light brown sugar and transfer them to a mixing bowl. Rub the ingredients together with your fingers until it forms the texture of fine breadcrumbs.

6. Add 2 medium free-range eggs, the vanilla bean paste or extract and the ground ginger to the mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon until well combined.
7. Add most of the cooked rhubarb pieces to the bowl and mix in gently. Reserve some to put on top.

8. Grease and line a 2 lb (900 g) loaf tin. Spoon the cake mixture into the lined tin. Put the reserved rhubarb on top and push it into the cake batter gently.

9. Bake for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes or until a skewer or cake tester comes out clean from the centre. Cover the cake with foil from around 40 minutes to stop the top of the cake and the rhubarb pieces on top browning too much.
10. Remove the tin from the oven once fully cooked and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin using the lining paper and leave it to cool fully on a cooling rack.

9. Delicious cold with a cup of tea or warm with custard!

Recipe variations

• You can vary this recipe according to the fruit you have available, for example you could swap the rhubarb and ground ginger for apple and cinnamon.
• Add a crumble topping by mixing brown sugar and cinnamon, then stirring in melted butter, and finally stirring in flour until it forms a crumble texture, then sprinkling on top before baking for a rhubarb crumble loaf cake.
• Mix together demerara sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it on top before baking for a crunchy sugar topping.

If you like this

You might also like:

• rhubarb scones
• rhubarb flapjacks
• rhubarb and vanilla cake with buttermilk
• rhubarb frangipane tart from Lost in Food

Recipe